Saturday, April 13, 2013

Some thoughts on respect for the human body....

I took the kids on a field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry this week. We had so much fun. I had never been before, but it was always on my wish list. It was like Chuckie Cheese for the brain! The kids bounced from exhibit to exhibit and after 4 hours we were all beat! No one even seemed to mind the beginning rush hour traffic as we trekked home, because at least we were sitting down!

One of the museum current exhibits is 'Inside Out Animals'. It is a spin off of the Human Body exhibit that was wrapped in controversy a few years ago. I guess dead plasticized animals are less concerning with their origins and dare I day, tamer? I was discussing all this with a friend this week and shared with her the controversy over the source for the corpses in the Body exhibit. She never heard about it, so I dug up the articles for her this morning. I also read an article of late term abortions outside the womb and came to one conclusion after looking at the two topics.....we've lost respect for the human person.

We live in a society so wrapped with fear of infringing on a persons right to choose that we remain silent or keep our head in the sand while murders occur all around us.

Where is the outcry for truth on the sources for the corpses turned into a modern day science freak show? We stand in line, belly up to the ticket booth and stop and stare at the beauty and complex design of someone's dead mother, father, child, uncle or baby.

My dad died 14 years ago right across the border of Mexico in California. The thought of him dying in Mexico at the cancer clinic he was at was unacceptable to my mother and I. We were afraid we would never get his remains out of the country and rushed him across the border a few hours before he passed. It was stressful and traumatic in Memorial Day traffic, but gave us peace in the end that we could honor and bury him properly.

This week I studied Joseph in Genesis chapters 37-50. It is the account of the boy sold by his brothers to Egypt as a slave. He ends up in prison after false accusations by his master's wife and ends up saving thousands of lives from starvation and famine by divine revelation. After his brothers come to buy food it is revealed that the very person that saves them is the one they carelessly threw away. Every life matters, every life has meaning and purpose.

After begging Joseph for forgiveness of their crime all is reconciled. The family is moved to Egypt and Joseph cares and provides for all of them. When his father Jacob (a.k.a. Israel) passes away Joseph takes his body and begins an intense process of preserving, embalming and transporting him to his burial place. To do this properly it takes over 2 months and Scripture tells us it was to honor his father's final wishes. Joseph knew a thing or two about respecting the human person.

The Bible teaches that man was made in God's image.

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Genesis 1:27

The decline in acceptance and support of that truth results in babies spinal cords being snipped in live birth abortions in America. We've contributed tens of millions of dollars into the pockets of private exhibit owners without considering their methods.

Don't stick your head in the sand...open your eyes and seek the truth!

Articles I read:

http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/2072577

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=12348566&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2Fm%2Fstory%3Fid%3D4296982


Thursday, April 11, 2013

Selfishness stinks!

We love homeschooling the kids. It never ceases to amaze me to find teachable moments within moments of teaching. It truly does work best for our family.

Today we were working on our latest unit study on honeybees and my 7 year old decided he wanted to color the same picture my 5 year old was coloring. Unfortunately I couldn't run him a copy because she had already colored it and our book of original posters was at another family's house. I asked him if he could please just wait until we got the workbook back. He said, "No!" With crossed arms and gritted teeth.

This particular child is one of my gentlest and easiest so I didn't pay to much attention to his outburst and went on with the lesson. He continued to gripe and grunt so I stopped and repeated my explanation and request to just wait for the workbook for a copy. I could tell he wasn't going to cooperate so I offered a different picture as a trade off....still no! He did compromise by asking me to draw the picture for him by hand. I covered her picture with a blank sheet, placed it on a window and could see that I could trace it exactly and quickly. I did. When I finished and turned around he had taken an original poster of a different picture and had started coloring on it. I grabbed it away from him and sent him to his room.

I was so angry! Why did he do that? I stopped the lesson and left the room to pray. I asked God what about that made me so angry? He softly whispered into my spirit, 'It was selfish'. I knew that today's lesson on honeybees would have to wait. Today we learned about selfishness instead.

I brought the dear child out of his room and explained to him that selfishness is putting our SELF in front of everything else and it is a sin. It is like saying no to love and yes to envy, self interest and greed.

We took turns picking different family members names and thinking about how they would feel on different situations. We also talked about how to put others first. A big example the 5 year old came up with was letting someone else pick the TV show we are going to watch :)

We also talked about these two verses:

'An unfriendly person pursues selfish ends and against all sound judgment starts quarrels.' Proverbs 18:1

'Turn my heart toward your statutes
and not toward selfish gain.' Psalms 119:36

We ended by discussing Jesus and how he came to give us a perfect example of selflessness. I reminded them that we all need God's help to fight selfishness.

Without the awareness of our selfish hearts we sound a lot like the seagulls in Finding Nemo saying, "Mine....mine....mine!"

Help us Lord to put others first and not selfish gain.